


Of Ice Creams, Battles, Bruises, and a Girl Made of Syrup

by roseveare



Category: One Piece
Genre: 30 wounds, Consequences, Gen, offscreen villain character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-08
Updated: 2015-02-08
Packaged: 2018-03-11 03:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3312563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseveare/pseuds/roseveare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-battle interlude. Luffy, Nami, Smoker, and... an old friend from movie 4.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Ice Creams, Battles, Bruises, and a Girl Made of Syrup

**Author's Note:**

> Original note: I wanted to write something with Nami, since Naffy _belongs so hard_ in a prompt set about Luffy and pain. But this came out a bit cracky and weird.
> 
> Previously posted under the title 'Black & Blue' on LJ as part of the 30 Wounds challenge prompt set. I liked this one _hard_ when I re-read it just now, so it gets an entry as a fic in its own right.

"Nnngh." He's pretty sure the ground is more comfortable than moving around would be, even if it's rough and gravelly and cold. But Smokey's still around somewhere, so he really should move... just a matter of pressing his hands to the cold, gravelly ground and pushing _up_ \--

His body hurts in ways he can hardly even _remember_. Not since... well, maybe when he was very, _very_ small.

"Oh, so you're awake," Nami's voice chirps, jarringly happy in a horrible fake and determined kind of way that hurts his head. "Luffy, this is Angela. Say 'thank you' nicely to her."

Nami's sat on a wall eating an ice cream, waving her hand towards... something. Luffy shuffles around on his knees and manages to raise a head that feels too heavy to stay on his shoulders. He blinks at a little girl of about ten, who's sat cross-legged on the floor with a puppy curled against one foot. She is also eating an ice cream. She stares at him with _wiiiide_ eyes.

"Thanks, Angela," Luffy says, because Nami told him to. "Hi." He waves. He waves at the puppy. "Hi to him, too! What's his name?"

"She's called Wart," the little girl says, critically, licking the ice cream.

"That's a coooool name." Luffy shuffles back around to Nami. He's confused, because the last thing he remembers is Smokey's staff coming at his face and now they're eating ice cream and he's on the floor and they didn't even get him one. "Na _miiiii_ ~"

"Don't you start looking so miserable." She pouts at him and hops from her perch on the wall. "Smoker stole my _key_. You only got a few bruises. I lost all that gold!"

"Sowwy, Nami..." He whines as she hooks a hand under his shoulder and tries to haul him up. It hurts. He staggers and grabs onto her, and most of her ice cream ends up on the ground. She _tsks_.

"You're stupid, mister," the child points out helpfully. "And you're real weak, losing to some guy made of smoke. What kind of dumb power is being _smoke_?"

"What kind of dumb power is being _syrup_?" Nami retorts. 

"I'm not weak!" Luffy yelps. "Just that Smokey's strong! And sneaky! He's got that rotten stick! ...Owowowowowow!"

Nami gets him to the wall, but that's not so much help, because his butt hurts just like everything else does. Wait-- "She can be syrup? Like Gasparde was--" _Oh_. Luffy shuts up. Something inside feels odd and nasty and hurts a lot more than all the other aches combined. He rubs at his eyes and the fierce throb in the left side of his forehead distracts him a bit. 

He stares down at his arms, then stretches his bare legs and stares at those too. "Nami! My skin changed colour!"

All three females snort, including the dog. The little girl says, again helpfully, "You're _really_ stupid, mister," and Nami, somewhat kinder, says, "Those are bruises, Luffy. Remember, like normal people get? Your devil fruit won't absorb the blow when Smoker uses his kairoseki stick. When regular people are hit with blunt force, they bruise."

"Oh." He frowns. "Hurts."

"I should think it does. Half your face is black." The edges of her mouth twist in a pained sort-of-smile that just can't decide, then she hands him what's left of her ice cream. "Here."

Luffy stretches his jaw to crunch it down in one go and the little girl's scathing eyes stop being scathing and grow huge again. He makes wider eyes right back and she sticks her nose up in the air and looks away, determinedly not impressed. Wart the dog wags her tail and lolls her tongue.

"Thank you again for helping us, Angela," Nami says, with a cautious edge. 

"That's all right. I don't like marines. All the marines in this town _suck_. They're supposed to protect us but whenever the bad men come they're never here."

"...Would you like another ice cream?"

Luffy feels a bit bad, because he knows Smoker's a good marine. He supposes that it's worse for Smokey to get chased off by a little syrup girl with a dog than it is for him to have to get saved by a little syrup girl with a dog. Then he starts to snigger under his breath, and then can't stop. Smokey must be so mad!

But Smoker did get the key so he still won. Luffy wonders what Smoker will do when he finds half the town's stolen gold in the local marine commander's secret vault. Since Smokey is a good marine, even if he's given Luffy so many _bruises_ , and since having your men disguise themselves as raiders to steal from the people you're stationed to protect is a pretty lousy thing to do. 

He's sure Smoker will figure it out. 

He supposes it would only have made Nami cry when they had to give all the gold back anyway.

"Show me!" Luffy says to the little girl. "The syrup power! Ah! AH!!" There--! There--! She's doing it! "SOOOO COOOOOL!!! CAN YOU EAT IT?!!!"

"Can I eat my _hand_?" She's scowling at him again.

"If it's syrup!" Luffy prompts, because it seems perfectly obvious to him.

"...I'm not _talking_ to you. I wouldn't have rescued you at ALL if I'd known." She folds her arms and huffs, then perks up like any ten year old as Nami brings back a second ice cream.

"It's okay to be slow," Luffy begins, and gulps as he ducks a syrupy spike.

"Ah!" Nami gives a little shriek and jumps between them, grabbing Luffy's hand. "Enough of that! Enjoy your ice cream -- again -- and thank you again for the rescue! Luffy -- we're _going_. Maybe Chopper can put something on those bruises." She hustles him away from the scowling child and the site of his not-so-epic battle.

"Nami," Luffy says, hushed and urgent, craning back again nervously to check behind them, even though the girl and dog are now well out of sight. He's sure he can still feel her accusing glare burning his back. "Nami, Nami, Nami--!"

" _...What?_ " Her iron grip on his hand somehow manages to hurt even though he's made of rubber.

His thoughts are at war between thinking how cool the bruises must look and wanting to show them off to Usopp, and being unable to forget _that other thing_... 

"Namiiii..." He whispers it, and looks back again. "Do you suppose that Gasparde's devil fruit _remembers me_?"

 

END


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